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Obama raises, knocks down Palin quote

President Barack Obama borrowed a phrase from one of his harshest opponents last night, telling supporters at a New York fundraiser that “all that hopey changey stuff” from the 2008 campaign “was real.”

The “hopey changey” term comes from a certain former Alaska governor and 2008-vintage Obama opponent. At a tea party convention in Nasvhille last year, Sarah Palin said she wanted to ask Obama’s supporters: “How’s that hopey changey thing working out for ya?”

Obama’s belated response went like this, according to last night’s pool report from the Gotham Theater:

“All that hopey changey stuff, as they say? That was real. It wasn’t something ...it was real, you could feel it. You know it. It’s still there. Even in the midst of this hardship. But it’s hard. When I was in Grant Park that night, I warned everybody this was going to be hard, this wasn’t the end it was the beginning.”

“Over the past 2 and a half years,” he said, “the hope poster starts fading. But I tell you what, you travel around the country and talk to the American people, that spirit’s still there.”

In a way, the combination of reviving good feelings from 2008 and spotlighting Palin-like bogeymen who scare independent voters is a decent snapshot of the Democrats’ 2012 strategy at this point.

Most candidates run on hope and change; they tell the voters what changes they would make if elected and hope the voters hope for those changes to occur. They also run on faith: they want voters to have faith they can make those changes happen.

Where the heck is that maverick Sarah Palin?The no retreat,no backdown,crosshairs,in your face,christian sent from God himself to save the country has gone into hiding.Can you imagine Palin dealing with world problems as president.Sarah,if you can't stand up against a few quotes in a book then how could you ever deal with the massive weight of being president!

Please stop it, Mr President. We now see you for what you are. A child of the 60s raised by angry radicals. Ayers, Wright, Alinsky, and your father. We're not interested in "dreams of your father." It was rage against society. Rather selfish motives, don't you think?

Who knew that's what you meant with "Hope and Change?" And how badly did Americans misunderstand you?

Sarah Palin's “How’s that hopey changey thing working out for ya?” is her version of Ronald Reagan's "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Obama would be much better off not bringing it up. Certainly the quotes you cite do not address her question. She's not questioning the fact that people bought into the slogan. There's no doubt people believed in hope and change back then, whatever that means, and some still do today. However, has that "hopey changey thing" made your life better 3 years later? Are you better off now because of the ambiguous promise of hope and change? For many, the change has not been positive.

As to the second part of their strategy, using Palin to scare independents, have you seen the latest poll?

"After trailing Obama by more than 20 percentage points in polls all year, the new national survey, taken Sept. 13-14, found Palin trailing the president by just 5 points, 49-44 percent. The key reason: She now leads Obama among independents, a sharp turnaround."

If Politico is trying to say he lived up to his promises, they're wrong. He certainly isn't Post partisan, he certainly isn't post racial, he has done nothing, since his first days in office, but put down republicans, the same Republicans he wanted cooperation from.

There's a reason his party lost seats and it's not because people still believe he can deliver on his hopey, changey stuff.

Speaking to his supporters, who spent $38,500 a plate to listen to him speak, he has rewarded them over the past three years. We've heard about Solyndra and LightSquared and now we hear about the weatherization scandal in Chicago. Each one of these reeks of political cronyism. So, he's right when he says this to the people who've felt the actual "hopey changey" thing.